Raspberry Pomegranate Urfa-Biber Brownies

My partner, Dave, wanted to make brownies last night.

“Fine,” I said. “Make them with urfa-biber!”

Urfa-biber is our latest thrilling spice discovery. It’s a Turkish pepper, spicy and just extraordinarily flavorful. The literature all says that it tastes a bit like raisins, and I tend to agree. It has that depth of fruitiness to it, as well as a fair amount of spicy heat. We are both blown away by it, and we have been using it in such great quantities over the last few weeks that we will have to go out and buy more soon.

“Urfa-biber and raspberry, then,” said Dave. I tried to insist that he put in some pomegranate molasses as well, but he thought it would be redundant, what with the raspberry liquor. But when the raspberry just wasn’t enough, he gave in and added the pomegranate molasses after all.

These brownies are goopy! Do not expect them to solidify past something resembling a very soft fudge. Perfect with Cherry Garcia ice cream, though, or just a cup of milk. They pack a hell of a punch, tart and fruity and richly chocolate with a slow burn coming in at the end, and I will definitely be making them again.

Combine the chocolate, butter, and sugar in a double boiler until about 150º. Remove from heat, and stir in the urfa-biber, raspberry liquor, pomegranate molasses and salt. Stir in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the flour, and beat with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula for a minute or two, until thick and glossy.

Wow that recipe sounds awesome. I don’t like chocolate or sweets generally but I think I would like the contrast with the urfa biber.
I live in NYC and luckily we have a few spice shops around here that have great selections. If you’re in the area you can pick up urfa biber at kalustyans. They also have a website but I’m not sure how much the shipping would be (standard UPS so you may want to buy a few pounds worth of spices for it to be worth it).http://www.kalustyans.com/

Urfa-Biber is new to me, now I’ll be looking. Chiles and chocolate seem to do good things for each other. The brownies do look goopy as you photo shows well and they look and sound like I wish I had one!

This stuff sounds a lot like “aleppo pepper”, actually. Earthy, raisiny, fruity, even from the same part of the world. The U-B sounds maybe a bit hotter than the A-P. If I try this, maybe I’ll add juuuust a touch of cayenne along with the A-P.

I used the urfa-bibber in Dorie Greenspan’s molasses spice cookies instead of black pepper, and it made a lovely addition. It was less obtrusive than I imagined.

On another note, maybe the couple who came up with “kittversary” and “aptiversary” (or their friends) can come up with an alternative to “mother-in-law” or “mother-in-law-to-be” (under the circumstances, this could be a long engagement…).

oh yeah, these are good
I used pomegranate liquor instead of raspberry, and I kind of spilled my pomegranate molasses in, so they’re very pomegranatey, but I like the pomegranate/spicyness
They also appear to fit my brownie criteria that they should never actually completely set, but I might have used more chocolate as I was hacking off big chunks to weigh in grams

seriously, other than sugar, flour, eggs, chocolate, and salt – i have no idea where to find all that other stuff and I have seriously gone to this website to look at these brownies like 10 times now. DAMN IT! I cant even imagine in what ISLE I would find that stuff. Imagine if all you had to shop at was a VONS …

Urfa biber also goes by the name isot. Jason is correct in noticing their similarity to the “aleppo pepper” – they are geographically nearby and reportedly look similar to each other. Wouldn’t bet on finding a good substitute, but I bet you can mail-order isot from almost anywhere. If I were forced into using a substitute, I’d use Aji colorado peppers.

I found something called ‘pul biber’ from Turkey, also called
Gida Ürünleri. The texture looks the same as the picture of
urfa biber but is more red. Does anyone know if this will work
okay for the recipe?
I live in Prague, so international spices are hard to find.